MTG Salvation

Creature - Zombie Wizard (R)
Trample
Whenever ~ attacks, you may cast target instant or sorcery card with converted mana cost less than or equal to ~'s power from your graveyard without paying its mana cost. If that card would be put into your graveyard this turn, exile it instead.
1/3

Well now, this is an interesting and unexpected red 2 drop! 3 toughness is the magic number for early game anti aggro tech, but why am I talking about the stats? That ability is NICE! There are a lot of 1 cmc instant/sorceries in cube. Blue has cantrips, white has removal, black has removal, tutors, and disruption, red has burn, and green has.... Worldy Tutor? Are there enough 1cmc spells to make this guy worth it? He can come down on turn two, fend off a couple early attackers, and then swing in once you have a spell or two in your graveyard. Obviously this guy loves getting his power buffed and once that happens, all bets are off, but I think we need to establish wether his base-case 1 power is good enough. What do you guys think?

I’d say definitely. My favorite card I the set so far. Even if you get one trigger off it’s worth. Also you’re ignoring the ability to play higher cmc spells(which id imagine happening more often than him missing any target) grafter wargear is my favorite equipment for a reason.

Not ignoring that possibility at all: "Obviously this guy loves getting his power buffed and once that happens, all bets are off, but I think we need to establish wether his base-case 1 power is good enough." My point is that we can't assume that power buffs will always be available and should consider his floor as a starting point to evaluating this zombie for cube. In my cube, the 1cmc targets are:

White:
-Enlightened Tutor
-Path to Exile
-Swords to Plowshares

Blue:
-Brainstorm
-Mystical Tutor
-Ponder
-Preordain

Black:
-Dark Ritual
-Entomb
-Vampiric Tutor
-Divest
-Duress
-Imperial Seal
-Inquisition of Kozilek
-Thoughtsieze
-Reanimate

Red:
-Burst Lightning
-Lightning Bolt
-Chain Lightning
-Faithless Looting
-Firebolt

Green:
-Worldly Tutor

So 22 1 cmc targets in my 540 cube. Probably enough, especially if you pick this guy up early/mid draft and can prioritize cheap spells. Casting a Thoughtseize on turn 1, this guy on turn 2, and then firing off Thoughtsieze again on turn 3 seems like a backbreaking line.

I also feel like this guy would play very well in Izzet/Jeskai tempo builds that like to run cheap equipment like Bonesplitter and Grafted Wargear.

I think this zombie is definitely testable.

The other consideration is how many ways can you boost hist stats, even getting to 2cmc spells opens a lot of things open

I agree that this is testable. My list is slightly different (don't run Dark Ritual, Divest, or Imperial Seal, but I do run Ancestral Vision and Booster Tutor), so I have 21 targets, which seems like enough to test for sure.

I might just cut Goblin Dark-Dwellers for this (instead of for Neheb like I was planning to), since this helps smooth out my curve and also serves a somewhat similar function for rebuying spells, albeit with different timing.

I don't think this card gets there. The floor is incredibly low, and your average deck will have maybe 2 1 cmc spells? This has a lot of potential in constructed, but Young Pyromancer this is not. Happy to be wrong though.

This is a slam dunk in my cube. I can't wait to aggressively cast preordain. Slapping a wargear on this guy is going to be an experience.

I really appreciate that its both good against aggro and in aggro. 1/3 can keep back some early aggression and let's you buy back discard and removal to slow down the game. Then on the other hand, you can just yeet bolts over and over again at faces.

Man oh man do I want to slap a Bonesplitter on this guy, really hope this plays as good as it looks, makes me want to re-include Vapor Snag honestly. Will definitely be testing it out, and will be hoping as all hell that this card sticks because that effect is sweet, and encourages some neat build around synergy with an awesome and unique payoff.

This isn't going to be as awesome as it looks in my cube, but I expect it to be playable and fun. It kinda reminds me of Spikeshot Goblin, which was always a fun card to build around before I cut it. Like many cards, it's not one I'll prioritize getting, but one I'll play if I do get.

I have 19 hits at 1 in my cube, only 2 in red. I feel like this guy is going to whiff a lot, but he's still worth testing.

White has a number of anthems and quasi-anthems that help to get its power up without relying on some weird card choices. Purphoros can pump your board as well. Taking these together, it's possible WR tokens decks would jam this guy in, which might actually be an incentive to run cheap token-generating spells (e.g. Krenko's Command).

I think most people would love to see him in a UR deck, though, and the only real ways to buff there (without equipment) that I know of involve tribal Wizards from Dominaria (Naru Meha, Master Wizard, Adeliz, the Cinder Wind)

I'm very curious to see if there are more ideas out there about getting this guy to pull weight, because I think the potential is tremendous.

This might turn out better than it looks, but I rather wanted a 2/2 instead of 1/3 to make it fit the agressive strategy more.
I will probably test this.

As someone that was hyped and thoroughly dissapointed by prophetic flamespeaker, I expect this card to not be good enough.
In an agressive deck, it absolutely requires a bunch of 1 cmc spells to be good enough, and might force you to sequence your spells in a way you don't want.

Connecting on your opponent isn't a trivial task (edit: Apparently that doesnt matter! woops ) ... and the magical christmas land of throwing equipment on this and getting a fact or fiction is going to be very rare.
There will be shells where this card is a very solid playable in, but many shells where it's the first card you cut from your deck.

I don't think the upside justifies the narrowness, but it's close and I could be wrong.

Quote from LucidVision »

As someone that was hyped and thoroughly dissapointed by prophetic flamespeaker, I expect this card to not be good enough.
In an agressive deck, it absolutely requires a bunch of 1 cmc spells to be good enough, and might force you to sequence your spells in a way you don't want.

Connecting on your opponent isn't a trivial task... and the magical christmas land of throwing equipment on this and getting a fact or fiction is going to be very rare.
There will be shells where this card is a very solid playable in, but many shells where it's the first card you cut from your deck.

I don't think the upside justifies the narrowness, but it's close and I could be wrong.

Minor note, but this card does not need to connect to activate its ability. It triggers on attack.

That's not a minor note, that's a very important part of the card. Being able to cast your removal spell twice before they declare blockers is what makes Arcanist unique and possibly cubeable.

Quote from TorontoJock »

That's not a minor note, that's a very important part of the card. Being able to cast your removal spell twice before they declare blockers is what makes Arcanist unique and possibly cubeable.

Agreed! It's a major note! Wow, actually improves the card a lot from the theoretical card I had in my mind.
Now I may test lol. Though, I predict my final conclusion will stand.

it's upside is noteably higher than I originally thought.

Oh wow, I missed that it doesn't need to connect as well. Completely dismissed this card. I thought it both had to connect AND you had to pay mana and I didn't understand the hype. Happening on attack and avoiding the mana means I am likely to test it. I still don't think it's going to last as the body is just so bad, but the ceiling is incredible.

I don't think there's enough targets for it to be reliable in this format, and my red decks do NOT want a 1-power 2-drop as the failsafe option. Cool card, but I don't think cube is the place for it.

Huge in a blaster deck full of buff and burn.

I run 24 1 cmc cards relevant for this guy, and that is - like everyone else's cubes - spread out over 5 colors. I have a hard time seeing much value from playing this guy, as I think it will be too situational to be consistently good.

Yea I'm rapidly cooling off on this guy. Hitting a discard spell or a swords to plowshares is absurd but I don't think that will happen reliably enough.

One interaction I find quite crazy with this new card is with Become Immense. Turn 3, make this guy Become Immense by delving some fetchlands or other random cards in your graveyard, when it swings, it can re-cast Become Immense because of its already pumped, hit for 13 damage.

This card, and all the other cards recently printed since Amonkhet that have the "power-matters" theme makes me think if it's possible to add a "infect-style" archetype in cube. Especially since it seems that this is the type of design that R&D keeps making new ones for, such an archetype can only get better and better.

Pushing a "pump-spells matter" archetype could work to replace some removal spells in a traditional cube, since most pump spells in limited work pretty much like removal where a player attacks into smaller creatures, but the pump spell makes the block profitable for them. I admit this would lower the overall power level of the cube and compared to traditional removal spells, pump spells fall for two-for-ones more easily if the targetted creature gets removed in response, but it would be closer to a risk-and-reward situation if the whole deck is drafted to take advantage of it. Examples of other cards in such a deck that would fit this archetype would be Electrostatic Pummeler and cards with Heroic.

Anyone have any experience with adding such an archetype in your cube?

I don't think it works with Delve spells. Delve pays for part of the cost. I don't think it reduces its converted mana cost.

Quote from wtwlf123 »

I don't think it works with Delve spells. Delve pays for part of the cost. I don't think it reduces its converted mana cost.

It works specifically with become immense because of the power boost if the previous post is what you are replying to.

Also, I really feel like this is a card that needs testing, he may suck, he may be great, but I can’t determine that without playing this card.